Battlestar Parthenon
by nixr490
Summary: Follow Captain Eva 'Haze' Reed, Commander of the Air Group for the Battlestar Parthenon, in the days up to and after the start of the Second Cylon War.
1. Part One

By Jonathon Roy Based on the re-imagined series of Battlestar Galactica.

Battlestar Galactica is owned by NBCUniversal and distributed by Syfy, and created by Ronald D. Moore, and as such, I make no claim to it, in addition, all stories written by myself in this universe are available to readers free of any charge, and have no effect on the canon continuity of the original story.  
Design, Mesh, and Imaging of the Arvak-class Battlestar was done by tan.j, and I make no claim on his intellectual property.

Chapter One

One week before the return of the Cylons

My name is Captain Eva Reed. I'm the Commander of the Air Group for the Battlestar Parthenon, an Arvek-class vessel, of BSG-25. The Parthenon is currently two days away from Picon at sublight, undergoing pilot training.

Five vipers launched away from the Battlestar, the other four falling in behind mine.

"Parthenon, Haze. Requesting permission to begin training exercises."

"Haze, Parthenon, granted. Raptor is on station to track."

The five vipers accelerated, boosting away from the ship.

"Alright, nuggets, we've got a target course ahead, everyone gets one pass, and your goal is to land as many shots in the center ring as you can. Loser buys drinks when we get back to port," I said. "Due to the nature of the exercise, you each have a CNP-enabled viper, while I do not, and should anyone score higher than myself, I will personally buy that person drinks back at port, is everyone clear."

"Haze, Raptor 379, callsign Echo, I'm standing by to keep score."  
The course consisted of several different target buoys, at different spatial altitudes and inclinations, fitted with equipment to register laser hits from training guns on each viper.

Each of the nuggets took turns running the course, each scoring reasonably well for nuggets, but nowhere near my score, before we were called back by the Parthenon.

"Haze, Parthenon, we've received orders to return to Picon early, have your squadron return.

"Parthenon, Haze, wilco. All vipers return to base. You too Echo."

"Roger that, Haze. Raptor 379, returning to base."

"Stay tight, nuggets," I said as we grouped back into formation and headed back to the ship.

The flight back took a few minutes, before aligning ourselves with the flight pod.

"Parthenon, Haze. Red Squadron on final approach, requesting permission to land."

"Haze, LSO, all vipers cleared for CNP landings."

"Negative, LSO, I'd like to see how the nuggets perform in hands-on landing."

"Permission granted, Haze. All vipers cleared for the hands-on approach."

I hit my forward thrusters for a second, allowing the Nuggets to pass me and land on the flight deck.

"Haze, LSO, cleared for landing, hands-on, speed 150, call the ball."

"I have the ball," I said firing my viper's thrusters giving me the speed to enter the flight pod before swinging around to the side of the deck and putting down on the elevator.

"Skids down, mag-locks secure."

The elevator activated bringing my viper down to the hangar deck, where it was towed into its slot.

One of the deck crew brought a ladder over, hooking it to the side of the viper.

I opened the cockpit and took off my helmet.

"Welcome back, Captain," Specialist Riley said.

I handed him my helmet and collar before climbing out of the viper and onto the deck.

"Thank you, Specialist," I said walking across the deck.

"Commander Dalton would like to see you in the CIC," Chief Illiar said.

"I'll head there now, thanks, Chief."

The Combat Information Center or CIC is the nerve center of the Battlestar, and on this particular Battlestar, the CIC was separated from a primary corridor by a shutter system.

I walked up the shutters and one of the marine guards pressed a button opening one of the shutters.

I entered the CIC and approached the Commander.

"Commander Dalton, sir," I said saluting.

"Well, Captain, how'd they do?"

"I think they did reasonably well, given most of them have no combat experience. I'd like to have follow-ups with both CNP and no CNP, and hopefully, they can learn how to execute the maneuvers the CNP assists with when flying with no CNP."

"Very well, we will schedule another training exercise, but it'll have to wait until we get back to Picon."

"Anything urgent?"

"Normal patrols. We've been tasked to jump out about ten million miles off the armistice line, and provide remote DRADIS telemetry back to Fleet HQ."

"If we're jumping out, why do we need to return to Picon."

"Picking up some provisions, extra ammo, and we have a lot of our crew on leave, we're picking them up as well."

"Very well. I'll have our birds ready, just in case."

Chapter Two

Five days prior to the return of the Cylons CIC

"Jump complete, Commander."

"Prep nav-raptors for launch, get Red in the air," Dalton said.

"Nav-raptors, prepare for launch. Red Squadron, launch."

Meanwhile, Hangar

I climbed into my viper, before securing my helmet, as it was towed into the tube.

I ran through my pre-flight as the launch tube sealed.

The engines flared into life.

"Pre-flight complete. Ready for launch," I said.

"Nav-con, green," the launch officer said, running through the check.

The inner doors of the tube opened, and the ship dragged against the vacuum before the launch officer released the locks holding the viper in place.

The viper sped through the tube, before reaching the space beyond.

"Alright, Red, group up in standard patrol formations. We've got three hours until Blue relieves us."

Each viper checked in with their callsigns for the benefit of the new pilot recruits, before dividing off into groups of three, and splitting off into different directions.

"Foxy, Tin. With me. Bearing 154, mark 030," I said.

Two vipers broke off the rest of the group and boosted away with me.

Our patrols were fairly standard, and over the next few days we picked up nothing. We couldn't have known what would have happened a few days later.

Day of Cylon Return CIC

We had been scheduled to patrol this area several days in advance, and several days later, reporting any detection to Fleet HQ.  
"Commander, remote telemetry of the armistice station has ceased."

"What do you mean?" Dalton asked.

"We've lost contact, and dradis telemetry of the area is clean."

"Clean? Where's the station."

"I have no idea, destroyed, possibly."

"Try hailing the station. Get our squadron onboard, and spin up our drives."

"No response to hails, Commander."

Red Squadron, on patrol "Haze, Parthenon. Cancel all patrols and return to base."

"Wilco, Parthenon," I said. "All Vipers, back to the barn."

It took several minutes to make our way back to the ship, my group being one of the last, but still, two patrol groups making their way back.

"Status," I said entering CIC.

"Last vipers are a minute out," Colonel Matthews said.

"Commander, I'm receiving an emergency transmission, in the clear."

Dalton walked over to the comm station where the message was printing out.

"Attention all Colonial units. Cylon attack underway. This is no drill," Dalton said, reading the message.

"What?" I thought to myself. "It had to be a prank."

"Contact!" one of the dradis operators said. "Unknown craft approaching. No colonial transponder."

"Get our vipers aboard, combat landing. Prepare for a jump," Dalton said after a few moments.

I picked up a headset. "All Vipers, this is the CAG. Increase to maximum throttle, combat landings authorized. Don't let off until you hit the deck. Unknown vessel approaching at carem 55 mark, 30."

"Helm, come about, carem 180, mark, 0. Flank speed ahead," Dalton said. "Specialist, issue a hostile challenge."

"Attention unidentified vessel, this is the Battlestar Parthenon. Identify yourself or you will be fired upon."

Nothing.

"Load ship to ship missiles into all tubes, prepare to fire on my order," Dalton said.

"Still no response, Commander."

"ETA?"

"Thirty seconds to landing."

"Set our jump clock to sixty seconds," Dalton said.

CIC crew ran through the pre-jump as the last vipers landed.

"Pre-jump complete, all vipers aboard, sir," Lieutenant Veidar said, "Jump in ten."

The ship jumped to a remote area of the system near the gamma star.

"Jump complete, all stations reporting. No dradis contacts."

"Commander, I'm picking up another transmission in the clear."

"Let's have it," he said.

"Fleet HQ has been destroyed, Admiral Nagala is taking command of the fleet from the Atlantia."

Dalton hesitated for a moment.

"Captain, get all our birds ready for launch, we're going to jump to Picon and assist in the defense," he said. "Keep the missile tubes loaded, inform the gun captains to begin firing as soon as the jump completes."

"Yes, sir," I said before departing CIC.

"Alright Chief, I want all Red and Blue in the tubes on this side, get all of Green in the starboard pod tubes," I said after arriving in the port hangar.

"Yes, Captain. You heard the Captain, knuckledraggers, get these birds ready to fly."

I walked over to the hangar decks comm system and put on a headset.

"All pilots, this is the CAG, man your planes. I repeat man your planes."

The CIC signaled condition one shortly after.

It took some time to prepare all three squadrons of vipers and the squadron of assault raptors.

"CIC, Haze, all vipers in position."

"CIC, Echo, all raptors ready."

"All stations ready, Commander."

"Execute jump."

The ship jumped into a high orbit of Picon, just shy of the battle.

"Helm, flank speed ahead. All raptors launch. Vipers launch in thirty seconds."

I signaled that pre-flight was complete to the launch officer.

"Nav-con, green," he said running through the usual checks, before releasing the lock on my viper sending me flying out into the battle.

I hit the engines as I exited the tube.

"Red, with me," I said.

"Haze, Echo, I'm reading a squadron of raiders on an intercept course."

"Roger Echo, I have them on dradis. Red will intercept."

"Haze, Slingshot, I'm pulling up on your six."

"Roger Slingshot. Red, here they come. Break ranks and engage."

I hit my RCS thrusters to come in behind the pack as they passed. Getting into the killslot for one raider.

I fired my viper's guns, destroying one raider before rolling into position behind another, but before I could open fire on it, it used it's RCS thrusters to maneuver around to face me, and opened a slot on the face of the ship, and a red eye began to flash across the triangular section of the face.

"Parthenon, Haze, my systems are being irradiated."

I pulled the trigger, but the guns didn't fire.

I tried to follow the hack and stop it, but all the ship's systems shut down. Inertia keeping the ship moving.

While I tried to get systems back up, seconds felt like minutes.

I managed to restore comms, but nothing else, and just as the raider was about to fire a missile, it exploded, and right after a viper flew past.

"Haze, ...shot, ...in. ...read," Slingshot said, but the transmission was garbled.

"Haze, ...shot, ...in. ...read," he repeated.

I adjusted the frequency and boosted the signal, hoping to clear up the interference.

"Haze, Slingshot, come in. Do you read."

"Slingshot, I read you. All systems have taken heavy damage from Cylon infiltration. I've got comms working, but they are spotty."

"Roger that, Haze. Keep working, I'll cover you."

The viper slowed, the gravity of Picon acting on it.

"Okay, think. Cylon hack, erase the system memory, restore backups," I said to myself.

It took a few minutes, but I managed to restore flight controls and two of the engines, but everything else was fried.

"Parthenon, Haze. Flight controls online, but engine 3 is fried, as are weapons."

"Haze, Parthenon, get back to the ship as quickly as you can. Admiral Nagala has ordered all ships to jump. We're going to regroup for a counter-offensive."

"Wilco," I said turning my viper back to the ship.

About two-thirds of the way back a panicked message was sent out over the comm.

"All ships break away from Atlantia."

Moments before she exploded.

I felt the shockwave from the flagship. The explosion sent Battlestar fragments in multiple directions, damaging or destroying a few other ships in close proximity.

The shockwave damaged my two remaining engines.

"All remaining vipers, execute combat landings asap. We are preparing to execute a jump."

"Slingshot, Tin, get aboard now," I said.

"What about you."

"I think I have enough inertia to make it to the deck. Go. That's an order Lieutenant."

"Wilco, Haze."

The two vipers flying formation with me broke off and sped to the flight pod.

I gauged the distance to the pod.

"This is going to be close," I said to myself.

I braced myself as I collided with the metal of the deck, skidding forward into the pod, losing enough momentum to stop the ship with just barely hitting Slingshot and Tin's vipers.  
CIC

"All Vipers aboard, sir."

"Execute jump."

"Where to, sir, the Atlantia never distributed coordinates for the jump."

"Anywhere, just jump."

The ship jumped away as a transmission noting the destruction of the Atlantia, with all hands, went out to the rest of the fleet.

Chapter Three A/N: From this point, the story moves away from canon, as after the battle at Picon, all colonial vessels other than the Galactica, and later Pegasus, are considered lost with all hands. I know that the first-person narrative isn't the most popular style of writing, but I hope you guys enjoy it.

The jump concluded in an area of space beyond the red line.

My viper had crashed into the deck and was practically in flames, and I was in a daze.

While the other surviving vipers were towed to elevators along the deck, emergency response pulled me from the remains of mine, before escorting me to sickbay, I came to a few hours later, with a concussion, and sprain and hairline fractures in my wrist. I was released not long after coming to.

I entered the CIC, it took damage in the battle, but repairs were ongoing.

"Commander," I said.

"Captain," he said, pointing at a brace on my wrist. "What's the damage."

"Nothing major. But doc says I can't fly for a couple days. How many vipers did we lose?"

"Red lost four vipers. Blue lost seven. Green was decimated by the Cylons, they lost eighteen vipers."

"Does that count my Viper? Because I'm pretty sure it's damaged beyond repair."

"No, that's just combat losses, but yours is the only one that crashed, hopefully, we can repair the others."

"We have a viper factory, why not just replace the, what thirty vipers we lost."

"We're already doing that, but we only have so many raw materials, and while we just got a group of pilots from basic when we were at Picon before our recon mission, they've had no combat training, and we'll need new squadron leaders for Blue and Green."

"I'll get one of my Lieutenants to start military flight on the nuggets, and I'll work on a list of people to fill those slots. For now, have the survivors from Green disband and join Blue, and I'll have Slingshot take over Blue until I decide on who will be that squadron CO."

"As CAG, I'll leave all decisions regarding, to you. For now, you could take the flight ops station here in CIC."

"Why? What happened to Major Stuart."

"Dead. He was thrown into a bulkhead by a missile impact."

I grimaced.

"Just in time too," he said motioning to the dradis. "Looks like two wings from Red are on approach."

The next two days were hectic. It took crews working double shifts around the clock to rebuild the viper losses, while repair crews were still working on critical repairs of the Battlestar itself.

All the while constant viper CAPs and nav-raptors positioned half an AU from the ship for early detection.

Three days after the attack, I was asked to report to the starboard hangar deck.

"Alright Chief, what was the fuss?"

"I have something with your name on it," Chief Riley said.

The door at the end of the hangar opened and a pristine mark seven viper was towed into the bay.

The viper was towed closer and closer before it came to a stop in front of me. I spotted the tail number first. 7218 Nebula Constellation.

I ran my hand across the nameplate that read "Cpt. Eva Reed" and "'Haze'". But another line was added below, which I had never seen done before, it read "Commander, Air Group."

"Is she ready for take-off?"

"Yes, Captain. The ordinance is loaded, engines fueled. Commander Dalton did want me to give you a message through."

"Oh?"

"He said these are expensive and not to trash this one."

I snickered.

"I'll do my best, Chief. How many vipers have we replaced so far?"

"90% of what we lost, but right now, we don't have pilots for half of them."

"That's because we lost eighteen pilots from Green. All but two being nuggets."

"How could we lose almost all of that squadron?"

"Our science team thinks that the CNP was behind it. Opened a backdoor for the Cylons. Green squadron was flying CNP-active vipers, unlike Red and Blue whose vipers had the CNP but not active.

Hell, if Slingshot hadn't been covering me, that raider back at Picon would have taken me out. The science team hasn't laid the blame squarely at the feet of the CNP, but I made the decision for replacement vipers to be built without it."

The Chief and I talked for a couple minutes about damages to the ship and how the repairs were going before I launched in my new viper.

I boosted away from the ship before coming around to rendezvous with the rest of the group that launched from the port hangar.

"Parthenon, Viper 7218. This is the CAG."

"7218, Parthenon. Roger that, Haze."

"Haze, Actual. This CAP flight we've got three veteran pilots with six nuggets."

"Roger that, Actual."  
"Slingshot. Take Squall and Poppy. Mercury, take Aspen, and Tracer. Ace, Rix, with me."

The three groups then split up on patrol.

"Echo, Haze. Report."

"Our current dradis picket has been on station for twelve hours and nothing. We're getting ready for another shift change though."

"Roger that, Echo. Haze out."

We patrolled for several hours without incident.

"Parthenon, Echo. We've got several contacts holding about an AU from your position. They appear to be re-grouping."

Not a few seconds after the message from Echo, I saw several small flashes of light in the distance, which dradis quickly confirmed as raiders.

"Parthenon, Haze. Dradis contact. Appears to be five Cylon raiders."

"Haze, Parthenon, intercept and destroy hostile craft."

"Wilco," I said boosting towards them. "Mercury, get the Nuggets back to the ship. Slingshot, you're with me."

"Haze, Mercury. Wilco."

"Roger, Haze. Sixty seconds to your six."

Slingshot caught up just in time to engage the raiders. Each viper and raider tried to get the better of another as the skirmish began. I pitched up while thrusting down to swing me around behind a raider, before pulling the trigger, destroying it in a hail of bullets.

I rolled left, seeing a raider on Sling's tail while he was pursuing another.

I boosted after them, knocking down the raider on his tail as he shot down the raider he was chasing.

We quickly dispatched the last two raiders.

We were halfway back to the ship when four more contacts jumped in, but this time they were large.

"Parthenon, Haze. Please tell me my dradis is malfunctioning and that four large contacts didn't just jump in."

"Haze, Parthenon. I could, but that wouldn't be a factual statement."

"Tell me our jump drive has been repaired."

"It has been. But it'll take at least twenty minutes to bring it online and spool up."

"Well.. shit."

The Parthenon's gun batteries activated and established a flak barrier, as we passed the outer boundary of it.

The four baseships moved to bracket the Parthenon.

"This is going to be a long twenty minutes," I said.

About ten minutes into the battle there was another large flash of light, indicating another ship has joined the battle.

It opened fire with its bow batteries, nearly destroying a baseship with its first two volleys.

"This is Fleet Admiral Shay, of the 32nd Battlestar Group, in command of the Battlestar Helios," was broadcast over the colonial frequency.

Helios' dorsal heavy turrets lit up, firing on another baseship, while the barrage from its bow batteries finished off the first.

Helios came around, firing its bow batteries at a third ship. The fourth ship broke off and spun its ftl. Parthenon shifted its batteries from flak to salvo and fired at it. It responded with a volley of nukes, before jumping away.

"Parthenon to all vipers, intercept those missiles."

"Haze, wilco."

Out of the twenty-some missiles, they launched vipers managed to shoot down all but two that got too far ahead before they could get in range. They hit the Parthenon, one in the central spine, the other along the section where the port flight pod and engines are connected to the main hull.

Chapter Four Two Weeks Later

It's been two weeks since Admiral Shay and his fleet saved us from a group of Cylon basestars, unfortunately, before retreating, the sole surviving Cylon ship launched a volley of nukes, and hit the Parthenon hard.

In the blast, Commander Dalton was thrown back through a glass monitor, and a shard impaled him, he bled out before he got to sickbay, while Colonel Matthews was tossed back against another station, and remains comatose.

As acting Commander I followed the Helios to a nebula a few jumps away from the Colonies, once there we came in contact with ten more colonial vessels, these all small support ships, according to the admiral, they contain civilians, saved from the attack.

Along with the commanders of the other four Battlestars, I flew down to a planetary base, where Admiral Shay had set up an ad-hoc fleet headquarters.

As I approached the base in my Viper I noticed it appeared to be built out of an old Battlestar, as if they took it apart in orbit and brought the parts down.

After landing I headed to the meeting with the Admiral.

I entered the Admiral's office, with a salute, I said "Reporting, sir."

"Ah, there you are Captain. I have a mission for you. I've already begun moving material and personnel. I want you to take the gunship Arcadia, and jump back to the colonies. Survey the worlds and look for survivors, anyway we can help without risking all that remains of the Colonial Fleet."

"Yes, sir."

"Also," he said holding out a small box. "I'm promoting you to Major. Congratulations."

I nodded.

"When you return from this mission, you'll be heading up the fleet-wide air group. The other four CAGs will report to you."

"That seems unorthodox."

"We don't have the luxury of sticking to the old ways. I need all my pilots coordinated, and that means a single voice guiding my pilots."

"If you think that's for the best, I won't argue."

"Also, I was hoping you might have an idea as to a new CO for the Parthenon."

"Captain Stark is a fine officer and almost as good a pilot as myself."

He nods, "While you are on the mission, the other commanders and I will be making the decision for the new commander of the Parthenon since you'll be on-mission you will not be under consideration. As you requested."

I saluted and left.

I returned to the Parthenon, but not before changing my rank pips.

Entering the CIC I spotted Slingshot and Echo at the conn.

"Slingshot, you're with me, pack your bags, I'm transferring you to the Arcadia."

"Wait, what?"

"Don't worry, it's a temporary assignment. Echo, Captain Stark, you have the conn," I said with a devilish smile. "Enjoy."

Slingshot and I got our gear and met back up in the port hangar.

"So you got promoted?"

"Yea. But that's beside the point, we have a mission."

"Then we'd better get to it."

We launched away from the ship in our vipers and made a beeline for the Arcadia.

The Arcadia pulled out of formation and moved to align its small hangar with our approach vector.

"Arcadia, Haze, vipers on approach."

"Roger that, Haze, doors are opening now."

As we flew underneath the nose of the ship, I killed my engines and used rcs to maneuver around letting inertia carry me into the hangar, where I deployed my landing gear and with a burst from the rcs, touched down.

As soon as I touched the deck I hit the maglocks, securing the viper.

Slingshot landed a few seconds after I did, but not with nearly as much flair.

"Arcadia, Haze, Vipers aboard, maglocks secure."

The doors began to close.

"Roger that, Haze, welcome aboard, Major."

After the hangar was pressurized, the deck crew entered.

I opened the canopy and grabbed the deck ladder as it was pushed against the viper.

I took off my helmet and climbed out as the deck chief spoke up.

"I'm Chief Petty Officer Harlan, I'll be your crew chief while you're here."

"Thank you chief," I said before heading out from the hangar.

Arcadia's CIC was much smaller than any other I'd seen, but then again, this is no Battlestar.

The Lieutenant at the conn approached me with a salute.

"Major, the ship is ready to depart at your command. We have the first jump already programmed."

"Excellent, thank you, Lieutenant. Take your station."

She nodded and headed to the other side of the small CIC.

"Set Condition One throughout the ship. All stations report."

"Major, we're receiving a transmission from HQ. It's the Admiral."

"Put him through," I said picking up the comm.

"Admiral, sir."

"Major, I have your rules of engagement, transmitting now, your eyes only."

"Roger that, sir," I said as the line went dead.

The transmission printed off, and I grabbed it skimming through.

"Alright. Status of jump prep."

"All stations report ready."

"Set the clock to ten seconds, and begin the countdown."

"Jumping in ten seconds."

The ship jumped in a flash of light.

"Dradis is clear, no contacts."

"Begin prep for next jump. T minus sixty minutes."

The Next Day

"Final jump is ready, we are set to jump in interstellar space between Helios Alpha and Helios Beta, the nearest colony is Tauron."

"All stations report ready for the jump."

"Tauron is going to be about a two-hour flight," I said.

"Recon raptors can launch, jump around a bit, listen for signals."

"I'm not sure what the Admiral wants us to do other than kill time. What chance is there we'll find anything?"

"We do still have one lead, we got that message from the Galactica for everyone to regroup at Ragnar."

"Yeah, we can send someone out to check. If Galactica is still there, we get one more Battlestar on our side," I said.

The ship jumped.

"Get our raptors in the air," I said.

The hangar door opened, the two raptors eased out with maneuvering thrusters before powering their engines.

"Raptors are in the air. We have them on DRADIS."

"Raptor 175, head to Tauron, listen for any signals. Raptor 293, jump to Ragnar, your orders to make contact with Galactica if it's still there. Give it's Commander the coords to HQ and have them report to Admiral Shay."

The raptors acknowledge before jumping away.

"Slingshot, you have the conn. Inform me when the raptors report in."

He nods.

It took a few hours for the Raptors to report back.

"Arcadia, Raptor 293, we found signs of a battle, but no ship debris, and no sign…"

"Sir, priority transmission from Raptor 175."

"Go head 175."

"Sir, we've intercepted Cylon communications, a group of civilians hiding out have been captured by the Cylons, they are holding them in a compound on Tauron, and we believe the Cylons are preparing to execute them."

"We can't allow that. Can you get me data on the compound, we need to prepare a strike and get those civvies out."

"Without detailed information, we don't know which compound," one of the junior officers says.

"Raptor 293, link up with Raptor 175. Identify the base, so we can pull the plans."

"Wilco."

"Do we have remote DRADIS telemetry of Tauron?" I ask.  
"Tauron's orbit is clear for the moment, but once we launch the attack, it won't be," Slingshot reports.

"Sir, Raptor 175 has identified the compound."

'Arcadia, 175, it's an old prison. I've taken passive scans, I'm sending you the blueprints they generated."

"I have them," Lieutenant Beck replied. "It's in the plains near one of Tauron's canyons."

"Understood, 175, 293, regroup with us," I said. "We'll jump into the atmosphere, and deploy our rescue mission."

"Wilco."

"Wilco."

It took the Raptors a few minutes to jump back and dock with the gunship.

"Alright everyone here's our plan," I said motioning to a map of the planet on the sole CIC monitor.

"Raptors jump in the canyon, here. Set down, power down. No contact until the signal. Meanwhile, the Arcadia jumps intra-atmosphere above the north pole of the planet. That's where the Cylon dradis is weakest. Slingshot and I deploy in vipers, and Arcadia jumps back to this position. Vipers get under the radar and head to target. ETA, one hour. Once we arrive on station, we send the signal, raptors, power up and begin approach to the compound. Vipers will approach, weapons hot, and take out the four guard towers. Raptors break formation, 293 you back off, while 175 takes out the main gate with its missiles, then 293 moves forward and takes out this section of the outer wall with its missiles. Both raptors will set down outside the main gate, and infiltrate the Cylon systems, and unlock the cells.  
At this point, Slingshot and I split up. He goes high and prepares for incoming raiders, I'll be going low to provide covering fire for the stationary raptors. Get the civilians aboard the Raptors, and jump back to Arcadia. Vipers run like hell, and once we've lost the Raiders, go orbital and signal the Arcadia. The ship does not jump back to Tauron for any other circumstance."

"Contingencies?" Slingshot asked.

"If we can't lose the raiders, we'll have to go orbital anyway, get away from the planet, signal for pickup, and power down. There are three possible endings in this situation. They send one baseship, which we can take. They send two, which we can withstand long enough to jump, or if they send three or more, in which they destroy the ship before it can jump."

"So textbook then?"

"This isn't a traditional viper assault. If we had a couple squadrons, and a Battlestar in orbit, we could perhaps do this without question. But we don't. We have two vipers, and two raptors," I said. "Not to mention, it's only a matter of time before a baseship shows up in orbit and nuke the compound. So that's our second contingency. If a Cylon ship appears in orbit, we have to abort, raptors jump away, vipers run like hell, but the shockwave will most likely fry our engines."

"About the jump," Beck said.

"You tell me. You need around 45 seconds with a healthy margin to jump, open the doors, viper take off, and shut the doors before jumping again. The lower the better."

"Personally I'd rather not take her below 60kms up. But we could probably do 45kms safely, and maybe 30kms, but that one is a bit risky. It all depends on the fall speed."

"45k kilometers off the ground then. You're covering the other fifty-five thousand some kilometers, I think we can take it from there. The hard part is going to be getting to the ground from there. Forty-five thousand kilometers, straight down, no thrusters. Pulling out of it at fifteen hundred kilometers could overwhelm our systems. The other option would blow up dradis which we can't do."

"Should be fun," Slingshot commented.

"Given it could kill us, I can't order you to tag along. 2-Alpha."

"Like I'd let you fly down there alone. I got your back, Haze."

"Lieutenant Beck, you have the conn. Raptors up in five," I said leaving the CIC.

An hour later Tauron

"Raptors 175 and 293, Haze. On station. Initiate operation."

"Haze, Slingshot, breaking formation. Moving to engage."

"Roger," I said breaking off.

I strafed along the perimeter of the compound, eyeing my targets.

"Weapons free," I said pulling the trigger taking out the first tower.

I rolled hard right, and pulled the trigger again, hitting the munition stores in the second tower, which went up in a large explosion.

"Haze, Clear."

The other two towers went down not long after.

"Slingshot, Clear."

"Raptor 175, clear forward, missiles away."

Three missiles streaked forward off the raptor. The gate burst open on impact.

"Raptor 293, clear forward, launching missiles."

Four projectiles fired off the ship, they turned slightly passing through the open gate, before slamming into the building.

I switched to the open colonial channel, and activated the transmitter, broadcasting to the compound.

"This is Major Reed. Callsign Haze. Raptors are accessing the network to release all captives, when the cells open, make your way out the main gate and board the raptors calmly. Vipers are on station."

I hit my rcs thrusters, and angled my nose down, firing on centurions in the compound.

"We've got it. Cells are open."

"Better hurry and get everyone aboard, we've got five squadrons of raiders incoming," Slingshot commented.

"I've got my hands full with centurions deploying around the compound."

"Haze, Raptor 175. We're nearly at maximum capacity, and one of the prisoners has told us everyone boarded either this raptor or 293."

"Roger that 175. We'll cover your takeoff, once you reach a safe altitude, jump back to the Arcadia."

The Raptors' engines powered up and lifted into the air, both promptly took off, and headed up.

Slingshot's viper dropped in on my wing.

"Those raiders are going to be on top of us any minute," he said.

"Let's go orbital."

Our vipers turned skyward and boosted toward the stars, moments before the Raiders overwhelmed the compound.

"Fuel check," I said after we left the atmosphere.

"I have about a quarter tank," he replied.

"I have slightly more than that. So we can mix it up a bit, but not much."

"Not much at all."

"Arcadia, Haze," I started to say, interrupted by the light put out by the raiders' jump drives. "We're frakked."

"We'll be on station in two minutes," Beck replied.

Ninety seconds later the gunship appeared in a flash of light. DRADIS recognized it right away. The ship dead ahead, a two-minute flight away, raiders one minute behind us.

"Slingshot, Haze. The following is a direct order. Pour on the speed until your skids are on the deck. Is that understood, Captain."

"Wilco, Major."

I flipped my viper around to 180 mark 0.

I looked to my left. Slingshot's viper was about to pass me. We made eye contact for a moment.

I gave him a quick salute.

"It's been an honor having you on my wing, Captain."

I hit the thrusters, and my viper took off towards the raiders.

"Tally. Fifty raiders, CBDR. Poor toasters, you should have brought more fighters. Arcadia, Haze. Engaging."

Meanwhile POV: Slingshot CIC

I entered the CIC as the jump clock was nearing its end.

"Hold jump," I said. "Come about to 90 mark 0, relative. Standby anti-aircraft batteries."

"Firing solution acquired."

"Captain, what are you doing?" Beck asked.

"Haze is going to need help. Prepare to fire on my order."

"It was her order that we leave."

"As she isn't in command anymore, I'm counter-manding that order. Fire!"

The batteries spun to life, saturating the raiders in point defense.

"Sitrep."

"We lost contact with Haze moments after you boarded, she took out about a dozen before her viper ran out of ammo, and she maneuvered around the raiders until she ran out of tylium. We registered the auto-distress beacon from 7218 Nebula Constellation, so I ordered the jump."

"Sir, the remaining raiders are bugging out."

"Ceasefire."

"DRADIS is clear."

"Launch Raptor 175, on SAR mission."

"Sir, those raiders will inform the Cylon fleet of our coordinates. They will be back in no time, and in force."

"You're probably right, we'll jump the ship after the raptor departs. After they locate the wreck they can jump to our new position. Begin jump prep."

"Yes, sir."

The next few minutes passed quickly, as the raptor was readied for launch, and the ship was prepared to jump.

"Raptor 175, Arcadia. Clear for launch."

"175, Actual," I said. "Good hunting, Lieutenant."

"Roger, Actual. 175."

The raptor lifted off the deck and eased out into space before it's engines kicked on and carried it away from the gunship.

"All stations, ready to jump, sir."

"Set the clock to ten seconds, and execute."

"Jumping in ten."

The ship jumped away from Tauron in a flash of light. 


	2. Thank You, From the Author

I know it took me a while, but here it is. Part One is finished. I'd to thank everyone who's been patiently waiting for this release.

I have a ton of other projects on my table right now, but I do want to write a part two eventually. So stay tuned.

Nix.


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